In today's commerce, vehicles, such as truck trailers, are used in great part to ferry goods to a desired destination. These vehicles typically have an enclosed cargo area in which the transported goods are contained. The floors of these cargo areas may be made of wooden planks having spaces provided therebetween or some material which allows liquid accumulating in the cargo area to drain therefrom. However, problems exist during the hauling of the cargo in that when the vehicle is moving greater than a certain speed, a pressure differential may develop between the outside ambient atmosphere and the inside of the truck so that the pressure inside the truck is lower than atmospheric pressure. When this pressure differential reaches a certain level, the liquid outside the vehicle can be siphoned into the vehicle through the porous floor structure. If left unattended, this liquid can cause problems such as warping and/or rotting of the wooden floor and corrosion of a metallic floor.
In order to prevent the problems discussed above, it has been proposed to insert a waterproof liner between the vehicle floor and the vehicle frame which effectively blocks the entry of ambient moisture into the cargo bed. Although this waterproof liner solves the problem with respect to ambient moisture entering into the cargo area, it presents a new problem in that moisture that may be contained in the cargo area could drain through the floor and be trapped between the floor and the waterproof liner where it can damage the floor as discussed above.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a waterproof liner which is provided between a vehicle's floor and frame which effectively prevents ambient moisture from entering into a vehicle's cargo area through its floor and yet allows moisture to drain from between the vehicle's floor and the waterproof liner.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle cargo area having a waterproof liner disposed between the cargo area's floor and frame which effectively prevents the entry of ambient moisture into the vehicle cargo area yet allows moisture collected between the cargo area floor and the waterproof liner to drain therefrom.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a vehicle having a cargo area with a floor and a frame and a waterproof liner disposed between the floor and the frame which effectively prevents the entry of ambient moisture into the vehicle cargo area and yet allows moisture accumulated between the cargo area's floor and the waterproof liner to drain therefrom.